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The
whole purpose of the 1co chapter 14 is that
we start talking about the
gift of prophecy and emphasizing it, and urging it upon others,
and encouraging those who have it to
exercise it. But you hardly ever hear
anything about that: it is all tongues, is it not? Yet Paul
was trying
to play
down the gift of tongues, and play up
the gift of prophecy:
NOW: testimony
of Jesus is
spirit of prophecy
the gift to speak The Word as Jesus
said:
... Peace be unto you, receive thee the Holy Ghost...
...
as my Father hath sent me, so send I you.
expound
the Scripture,
to speak the
Comforter
edify,
and
encourage
from the Scripture of Truth...
worship God: ...Testimony
of Jesus is spirit of prophecy...
That brings us to chapter 15
with its great emphasis on the
resurrection. What would any of these things be worth if we did
not
have a living Christ to make them real? The resurrection
is the great
pivot for the whole of the Christian
faith---everything comes
back to
that. If Jesus
Christ was not raised from the dead, then, as the
apostle says in this chapter, we are hopeless, and not only that, we
are the most to be pitied of all people---we are nuts, we are fools, we
ought to be locked up somewhere, if Christ be not raised from the dead.
But what a triumphant paean of proof and praise is in this
chapter
concerning the resurrection. Paul closes it with what is his whole
point. Everything in this whole letter comes right down to this one
verse (verse 58):
Therefore, because of all he
has said up to this point
my
beloved brethren,
be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding
in the work
of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Bryan:
see a letter of Paul to Tim
Chapter 16 is just a postscript in which he catches up certain
little things that the church needed to know, very important to us, but
then he comes back to this theme again:
Be
watchful,
stand
firm
in your faith, be
courageous, be
strong,
Let
all that
you do be done in love.
(1 Cor. 11:13, 14)
And you have got the equipment to
do it with. So, Now do it,... experience
The-Messiah
Prayer
Our
Father, we thank
you
that we who live also in a
sex-saturated society, given over to the love of wisdom and
intellectualism, have in Jesus Christ, in the word of the cross,
everything that it takes to meet the pressures that come upon us in
this day; there is no reason for failure. And so, Lord, we pray that we
may learn more about these great themes, and discover the exciting
fascination of everyday living on this level and in these terms, thus
discovering the adventure that you intended life to be.
We
ask in
Christ's name, Amen.
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KEY NOTE: SEE
Daniel
10 Last verse: NOTED
the Scripture of truth...
Be Holy, be a Doer of The WORD
